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Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt > Neferneferuaten

Neferneferuaten

Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten was a woman who reigned as pharaoh toward the end of the Amarna era during the 18th Dynasty. The royal succession of this period is very unclear. Manetho's Epitome, an ancient historical source written in Egypt during the third century B.C., mentions a certain Akenkeres who was a king's daughter and ruled Egypt for twelve years and one month. This information is confirmed by the rare epithet, "Effective for her husband", which was used to refer to her in Egyptian records.

The epithet establishes that a female king--who was the daughter of a king (presumably Akhenaten)--assumed power as pharaoh toward the end of the Amarna era. Akenkeres or Achencheres is probably the Greek form of her prenomen, Ankh[et]kheperure, as Rolf Krauss and Marc Gabolde have previously argued.

Manetho places her immediately before a certain Rathothis who ruled Egypt for nine years. This later king must be equated with Tutankhaten, who is attested by several Year 10 hieratic wine jar dockets from his tomb and, hence, enjoyed a minimum reign of nine full years. With the removal of a spurious decade from the original twelve year figure, Neferneferuaten would have ruled Egypt for two years and one month which conforms well with a long Year 3 graffito attested for her in the Theban Tomb of Pere (TT139). The first section of this graffito reads as:

"Year 3, 3rd month of the Inundation, day 10. The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the Two Lands, Ankhkheprure--beloved of Aten, son of Re Nefereneferuaten beloved of Waenre (Akhenaten)...Giving praise to Amun, kissing the ground before Onnophris by the wab-priest and scribe of divine offerings of Amun in the temple of Ankhkheprure in Thebes, Pawah, born to Itefseneb."

Neferneferuaten is thus attested in her third regnal year by Pawah, who served as a minor priest of the god Amun, whose religious establishment had been persecuted during the reign of Akhenaten, her father. This implies that she had already reached an accommodation with the Amun priesthood in her short reign even prior to the start of Tutankhaten's reign.